IBM shows off prototype optical transceiver chipset

Just yesterday the computer giant, IBM demonstrated at the 2007 Optical Fiber Conference a prototype optical transceiver chipset that is supposedly capable of reaching speeds eight times faster than optical components available today.

The explosion in the amount of data being transferred, when downloading movies, TV shows, music or photos, is creating demand for greater bandwidth and higher speeds in connectivity," said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president, Science & Technology, IBM Research. "Greater use of optical communications is needed to address this issue. We believe our optical transceiver technology may provide the answer.The optical transceiver chipset sends data as light impulses instead of the mainstream electrons over copper wires, which allows speeds of up 160 gigabits. Another strong point of this prototyping technology is the transceiver's compact design, about 1/15th the size of a dime.